Summary

Deadguy Ale is a Legacy midrange deck that forgoes the traditional powerful blue card selection and counter spells for consistently powerful creatures, equipment, removal, and discard. The strategy thrives when it can prey on other “fair” decks that simply can’t out-value it in the late game. Before you look it up, I do have the answer to the question, “Where the hell does the name come from?” The answer is that the original designer, Chris Pikula, was on a team called Team Deadguy at this time, and calling the deck Deadguy Ale was a play on words, as there’s a beer made buy Rogue Brewing Company called Dead Guy Ale. Hence, the “rogue” deck they brought to the tournament was a “rogue brew” just like the beer Dead Guy Ale. It works on multiple levels, folks.

The extremely important core to this deck is the creature base. Deathrite Shaman is the newest addition to this deck, but its ability to add mana early in the game and provide a clock or life gain later in the game makes it the most value-driven “fair” 1 mana creature in the format. Dark Confidant provides a steady stream of cards which allows it to keep up with, and surpass, the blue midrange decks in the format, and it demands a removal spell every time it’s played.

Stoneforge Mystic helps with this strategy by searching up a powerful equipment that helps the deck win most, if not all, combats that it engages in. The equipment available are Sword of Fire and Ice against Delver decks and the like, Umezawa’s Jitte against small creature decks and midrange value decks alike, and Batterskull, which is a nice catch-all and provides a big, menacing creature when played.

Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach are an incredibly potent 1-2 punch in Legacy. While Thoughtseize strips the opponent of their most important non-land card, Hymn to Tourach doesn’t hold back, frequently winning games on its own by stripping the opponent of the land they need to win the game. Worst comes to worst, it’s a 2 card for 1 card trade every time it’s cast.

It’s also very important to highlight the planeswalkers in this deck, as they provide a constant source of card advantage that is very hard to interact with. Liliana of the Veil is certainly the more expected option, as its unmatched card advantage has made it the format’s go-to planeswalker in the last few years. Liliana, the Last Hope has some nice applications too, however. It ability to rebuy one of the very valuable creatures in this deck makes it a good piece of the puzzle.